


Winter Memories

by astudyinfic



Series: Holidays 2020 [23]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Nostalgia, Not Beta Read, Reminiscing, Stucky - Freeform, back to a simpler time in the MCU, when they all lived in the tower and were friends and mostly happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28294296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astudyinfic/pseuds/astudyinfic
Summary: The snow brings back memories for Bucky and Steve alike.  Some good and some that deserve to stay in the past.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Holidays 2020 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036116
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Winter Memories

**Author's Note:**

> **Day 23: Blizzard**
> 
> Prompts can be found [here](https://astudyinfic.tumblr.com/post/635866337200259072/decided-it-was-time-for-a-new-holiday-prompt-list).

Steve found him sitting in his room, staring out the large windows across the city they once knew so well. Things had been quiet for the last few days, the blizzard enough to keep even the most hardened villains from doing anything terrible. New York was blanketed in white and it continued to fall, dampening the sound of a city that was always awake, giving an eerie quiet that Steve found unsettling. 

“You okay?” he asked, sitting on the bed next to Bucky. Bucky was still acclimating to life in the tower. It had taken some convincing, but Tony finally agreed to let him move in, as long as he shared the floor with Steve, who was the person who could keep him calm in his worst moments. If Steve could keep Bucky from destroying anything, he could stay. 

Steve didn’t point out that most of the damage in the tower usually came from Tony and his experiments. It would have been rude. 

Bucky had been polite to everyone else but withdrawn. Steve hoped he would get used to the group and start to make friends but other than a sort of friendly animosity with Sam, and a quiet understanding with Nat, he hadn’t made much of an effort to get to know the others. More often than not, Steve found him on their floor of the building, working out, or reading, or just staring out over the city like he was now. 

“Do you remember when you were twelve and we thought we would sell newspapers to make a little money to buy Christmas presents?” Bucky asked out of nowhere and Steve was thrown back into 1930s Brooklyn, to a life when he was a nobody, small and easily overlooked. Except by Bucky - his best friend and the brightest point in his life. 

He chuckled and sat on the bed next to him. “If I remember right, you tried to talk me out of it, but I wasn’t taking no for an answer.”

“You never did,” Bucky laughed. “I spent most of my childhood chasing after you. Everyone always thought I was the bad influence. Even here, they all think you are some kind of angel.”

Steve had brought that on himself. The Cap persona helped but everyone thought of him as a goody-two-shoes do-gooder and Steve did nothing to dissuade them. The one time he chastised them for their language was something he would never live down. 

He was glad Bucky hadn’t been around for that or it would have been so much worse. Bucky knew the kind of mouth he had when he got going. 

“Was that the year that it started snowing like this right after we got the papers to sell?” Steve remembered that year. He got sick not long after that and Bucky blamed it on them being out in the cold for too long. He was probably right but Steve would never admit it. Not even now, almost a hundred years later. 

Bucky nodded. “We ended up using half the papers to stuff into our boots to try and keep our feet warm. I think we sold maybe one or two. I don’t remember what we did with the rest of them.”

“I don’t either.” Probably tossed them in the garbage when they decided it wasn’t worth freezing to get a few extra cents. They ended up back at Steve’s house for cocoa and cookies. “I do remember my mom yelling at us for tracking snow through the house. And lecturing you about letting me stay out in the cold too long.” It was one of the last Christmases they would have with her and the memory felt more bittersweet with that realization. 

“Yes, well, everyone lectured me about taking care of you. Didn’t matter how many times I told them that you were the one that picked that fight, that you were the one with the harebrained idea...” Bucky didn’t sound angry, more amused for which Steve was thankful. There were some dark days in both their pasts but there were some good memories too. 

Almost all of those good memories included one another. 

“I remember using the pennies we got from the paper to buy you candy for Christmas. It was all I could afford with it, but I wanted you to have something.” They both fell silent at that memory. That was the year they shared their first tentative kiss under the mistletoe. They were young and naive and didn’t realize the importance of it just yet. Steve wasn’t sure he realized the importance of it until after Bucky was gone. They thought they would always have each other. There were girls here and there but none of them ever compared to his best friend. 

Then Bucky was gone, and Steve was lost. 

Then Steve was gone too, and that could have been the end. 

Instead, they were being given a second chance at this life, eighty years later. He took Bucky’s hand and smiled at the man who had held his heart since they were children. 

Nothing was said for several long minutes, the two of them smiling at one another and basking in the comfort of the only other person in this world who could truly understand them. Eventually, Bucky sighed and looked back out the window. 

“Oh! Remember that time we went sledding and you broke your arm?”

“When I was ten or when I was fourteen? It happened twice, remember?” Sometimes Steve was amazed he survived his childhood. His poor mother must have had frayed nerves having a sickly child who thought he was invincible. But he always had Bucky there with him. 

Bucky rolled his eyes heavenward and then fell back on the bed. “You really were an idiot, weren’t you? Why did I follow you around again?”

“Because I made life interesting.” It was supposed to be a joke but the truth of the words hung in the silence that followed them. Life wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting if it hadn’t been Bucky and Steve, Steve and Bucky. 

“You’re right. Life is never dull with you around. Did Tony say you jumped out of a plane without a chute the other day? Steve looked away and braced himself. Bucky smacked the back of his head. “You _did_ take all the stupid with you, didn’t you?”

“Making up for lost time,” Steve joked. And maybe he just enjoyed having someone who looked out for him. No one else seemed to think Captain America needed someone, but Bucky knew better. Steve rather liked having someone worry for him, even if he complained the whole time. 

It was part of the game. Part of their flirtation. Part of the fun. 

“God, eighty years of stupid to make up for? Remind me to buy more alcohol.”

“Or you could join me.”

Bucky sighed, looking over at him. “Joint you in the stupid?” When Steve nodded, Bucky sighed even louder and threw his good arm over his eyes. “If I have to. You know I’m with you to the end of the line.”

Steve never had any doubt.


End file.
